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Last night at the old Calder bookshop in Southwark, Reality Street Editions launched Wendy Mulford’s The Land Between and Peter Jaeger’s rapid eye movement. Jaeger’s book consists of parallel bands of text: dream narratives and found material including the word ‘dream’. I’ve heard him read some of this work before and he does it well, breaking sentences at just the right tone and pitch as he shifts from text to text. The reading is completed when a set alarm goes off at whatever point in a sentence or even a word that the author has reached. The book seemingly walked off the display shelf though a healthy group of writing students in the audience (Jaeger is a writing teacher) may have made a difference here. It would be a pity if the comparative sales of Mulford’s book reflected anything more than this. It is her first since and suddenly, supposing, the selected poems put out by Etruscan Books in 2002. Mulford’s work is undemonstrative and precise yet nonetheless formally innovative. Significantly she insisted the lights remain on in the room rather than isolate herself on the Calder’s spotlit stage.
Last night at the old Calder bookshop in Southwark, Reality Street Editions launched Wendy Mulford’s The Land Between and Peter Jaeger’s rapid eye movement. Jaeger’s book consists of parallel bands of text: dream narratives and found material including the word ‘dream’. I’ve heard him read some of this work before and he does it well, breaking sentences at just the right tone and pitch as he shifts from text to text. The reading is completed when a set alarm goes off at whatever point in a sentence or even a word that the author has reached. The book seemingly walked off the display shelf though a healthy group of writing students in the audience (Jaeger is a writing teacher) may have made a difference here. It would be a pity if the comparative sales of Mulford’s book reflected anything more than this. It is her first since and suddenly, supposing, the selected poems put out by Etruscan Books in 2002. Mulford’s work is undemonstrative and precise yet nonetheless formally innovative. Significantly she insisted the lights remain on in the room rather than isolate herself on the Calder’s spotlit stage.
1 comment:
Hi Laurie,
I'll read more Wendy Mulford. Thanks for the post.
As to the staging, I always want the lights left on at the Sydney venue 'gleebooks' where they usually dim the light over the audience once the event begins - it's yet another setup to have to reckon with.
Anyway,
ta
Pam
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